11.10.2025 Fall River School Committee - Finance

Um, I'd like to call to order the November 10th Monday finance meeting.

Deb, could you please call the role?

Mr. Agua, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Das here.

Mr. Corey here.

Miss Laravey here.

Miss Pereira, Greg Coogan here. Salute to the flag. I don't know where it is.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Uh Deb, do we have any citizens input?

We do not.

Committee of the whole discussion item 3.01 um finance policies and processes. I'm assuming that's Mr. Almea.

Oh, sure.

You want to go?

Yeah, I mean I can start.

Superintendent Curley. So, um I had shared with the committee um in preparation for this discussion um a packet of information that offered um basically all of the policies um the finance policies from our from our policy handbook um as well as truly an AI generated overview of each one of those for a quick reference for folks.

Um we've talked a lot in the last year about um any potential opportunities we you know we would take to review all of the policies um in the handbook and and I had suggested at times that we take them kind of as um as groups and you know as we're entering into the budget season uh and certainly getting a lot of questions around our spending um I've gotten some questions from time to time

you know what's the policy on this what's policy on that. I thought it would be a good idea to share all of these policies um in their entirety along with the little snippets so that folks could get an overview of uh where we are in terms of our the policies that um kind of dictate our operations around um finance and get some feedback. Um my hope is um potentially that we could put

a working group together um you know that is comprised of members of the administration as well as members of the committee um not necessarily through the um a subcommittee or even the policy subcommittee but just a subcommittee of people who have you know an interest in taking a look at these policies um and making recommendations potentially to the policy uh subcommittee for recommendation to the uh committee of

the So that's where we are in terms of this and I would you know invite any questions or commentary because I think that people probably took an opportunity to look at this over the weekend and then I and Mr. Almeida can answer some questions.

Okay, Mr. Das right um just before we begin I understand it's important to um start the meetings on time but I do know there's um three members missing right now and if this is a feedback meeting I know two members are currently on their way. I think they just got caught up.

So, I think we should just um hold off for 5 minutes so we can get feedback from the entire committee.

Um you think that they'll be here within 5 minutes?

I think so. But I think that would be fair. Just give it five minutes. If not, then so I'd like to make a motion we table for five minutes.

No, we'll recess. Uh motion to go to recess.

Five minutes. Let's go.

Recess.

Mr. Mr. Aguia, we just uh got the overview on the policy that um the superintendent outlined and before we got into anything related to money, Mr.

Almea was just taking the forum and uh we called for a recess to get you in here. Mr. uh Mr. Almea, as a superintendent stated, uh we provided the uh finance policies as they um as we have them. Um excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Kevin, could you eat maybe eat the microphone?

I'm not able to discern or is there another monitor? No.

Okay.

Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Can you hear me better now?

Yes.

Okay.

Um the superintendent stated that we provided the uh finance policies as they stand currently. Um so I at this point we're just going to open up for uh questions.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Das, thank you. and I was able to go through the backup and I'm happy we're having this opportunity to give um feedback to your your team and to the administration. So, I'm going to first start with the financial batches. Um just as myself as one member um we get multiple copies of the same batch per day and if you click on like an older batch um it sends you a link to a new

batch and it gets a little bit confusing which one is which. And um if I think if we could also label the batches um a little bit better, I think that would go a long way as well. Especially when we have questions on the batches, we know which one we can pinpoint to um attach the qu the questions to and um and what and what particular what kind of information are you looking

for or what change? So for example um the when you send when the batches get sent over they have like um like a different different names to them maybe just saying this is more clear and concise name I I could think of something better offline to give you but okay again not really big issues but I think just little things that would be um helpful and I think the questions need

to be answered sometimes more in a timely fashion so therefore I can sign them in a more timely fashion as well.

Um, that's what I have on the batches.

Um, start with the go forward with the late fees. Um, do we have an update on what we're going to do to crack down on late fees?

Get closer.

Get closer to the mic.

Pull it up closer. It's hard to hear down here.

Can Can you all hear me now?

Yep.

Okay. So, in terms of late fees, um what are we doing to crack down on the late fees? Um just for an example, I re I this the batch I received yesterday going through it. One of the facilities batches um was already received was already late and I just received it yesterday and it's already late and it said that we would get like some sort of like minor monetary fine if we're past

30 days, which it already is. So, um I don't know if again that has to be a conversation we need to have with the city, but what what can we do to crack down on the latencies?

So, I I mean I can't answer as to why we are where why you or I or anyone else would see a batch um where something was already late. I do my understanding, however, is that the only late fees um we have really ever assessed um is through utilities. And we did have one that had recently been assessed and then um forgiven um this past spring and into the summer that was outside of

utilities, but I know that a lot of these say, you know, within 60 days, within 90 days. Um some I think have been a little bit shorter, 30 days, we've been able to get extensions on those. Um but to my knowledge, we have not been assessed late fees. That doesn't mean out of respect for these companies, we shouldn't look to pay them. um in a timely fashion and within the time frame that's been agreed upon,

but I don't believe late fees have been assessed for any of those.

Okay. And I and I'll send you the individual one that I'm talking about send a question tonight or tomorrow, but in terms of the utilities, what what are we I know that was a topic of discussion earlier in earlier meetings. what what are we doing to um I kind of know I know you said um I believe you said you would all look into it and see what like some of the root causes are

and I'm not sure if it's something to do with um procurement on the city side or if it's something that is on our side that we could do better.

No, there's things that happen with the utility companies. Um just just today I've I've pretty much taken on the utilities myself and um I've been dealing with the utility companies to ensure that we're paying things timely.

And so um you know we we were able to extend the time frame on the utility bills from their general 30 days to now 55 days for National Grid and 45 days for Liberty Utilities. We were trying to get the same window for Liberty Utilities and they would not they would not honor it. In addition to that, we've had a lot of issues with National Grid in regards to how they post payments to

the point where we are we are issuing individual checks to National Grid to apply to accounts correctly where before we were just issuing one check for a series of of bills. Um, and you know there there's always issues. There are issues over and over and over again. And once um I've just in the last two weeks I've submitted uh three different emails for corrections that are needed on their

end on the way they're applying things.

Uh the the fortunate part about it is they've put a hold on any late fee for us um until like January 1st and they're going to they're going to back give us back they're going to credit us back the late fees that were charged for this past year.

Well, that's good to thank and thank you for disclosing that. Um, is this something we're working on with legal counsel in any way to if they're, you know, not honoring contracts or they're not following fiscal?

We I I we're on top of it. We are very on top of it right now and, you know, we're we're continuing to work with National Grid to ensure that these things are getting done on time.

um what's the process of um when a expenditure or a bill gets transferred from the from the school department after we sign off to the city um is what's what's the process after that?

So you know so the warrants the city city will print the warrants on Monday.

So, as of as of Friday, um typically Friday morning, if we've submitted anything anything through Friday morning, typically sometimes later in the day, Friday, it'll get on the warrant for Monday and then the city will fund the warrant uh that week and typically the checks are usually issued on the city end by the Friday of that following of that week. Would would you know like specifically does it have to

be signed off by like say their auditor or their treasurer, the CFO?

Typically typically the auditor signs off on the on the on the warrant and the mayor signs off on the warrant.

Okay.

Um few last questions. Um in terms of the processes for because I just recently saw this in the financial batches for the um cyber incident. who who's responsible in our indirects for for paying that?

I'm sorry.

For for example, for for legal like I saw some recently some legal um bills come through the through the batches.

Who's responsible is it in our indirect cost agreement for paying the we we pay the legal fees on for our side.

Okay. Um

um for I don't know if this is more of a general question, but I think it goes into the policies and processes.

Um are we cracking down on what we're using Michael Joyce's law firm for? because I think there needs to be some policies in place in terms of having either some sort of contract with Michael Joyce's law firm. For example, I just saw um I believe a $1,000 um bill from Michael Joyce for handling one public records request and it's my understanding that Mr. Joyce was should be or at least it

should be only for instances that involve his expertise. I think my opinion is that public records request should be handled by the city's corporation council and not going to the big law firms. My opinion, I think that's something we need to crack down on. Um, last two questions is um, and I saw this in the Collins report is the financial reporting is um, said something finding about financial reporting not being

available for facilities.

Um do you do you know what that's about?

Yes. So typically we don't we don't provide the reports but we are going to provide them moving forward.

And in terms of procurement on um the facility side um they don't who would it would just be your office who actually who handles the procurement in the district. So that the procurement typically will come from the department head. And so the department head is tasked to if if and when needed to get free quotes, you know, for any purchase and that information is submitted to our

department um handled through typically our procurement specialist uh who will review all the documentation, send back any information if more information is is needed, and then once all the information is fulfilled and and we have that, we'll move it forward.

Okay. Um I do know that set that report also made um some references in regards to um the procurement policies and if there and made a recommendation that we should review our procurement policies in terms of that. Have we been running into issues in terms of procurement?

Uh we've been very on top of it this year. I will I will say that.

Okay. I yield for now. Thank you.

Anybody have Mr. AIA?

Thank you. One of the it's a question through the entire uh package on the bottom of all these policies. It says something like a note and it says something like uh check on it from towns or cities. It almost looks like as if we are taking what MASC submits to us but not adjusting it for city for the city. Did you notice that on Yeah.

Yes. I I think we probably wouldn't need that in my mind if we when we're adopting the policy, we say we've tweaked it to match what city needs.

What I I've complained about this for a while about the way we did policies. So my recollection in the past was we would get a hundred different pages from MASC with stuff like that on the bottom. we would go to the policy subcommittee and say here's the list of all these policies motion to approve or not and that's not a good that's not good practice I don't think anybody thinks it

is but this was just telling because it basically proved to me what I was trying to say that we have to have each policy looked at and voted on for the merits of what it is to fall river doesn't run our policies we can do the generic thing which I'm not in favor of is just say oh MC said these are the policies so therefore that's what we do.

We've done that over the past 10 years probably eight years. We had some tremendous policies here related to fiscal accountability uh fiscal controls and the and the like. We got rid of those and I for the life of me can't figure out where the heck they went. I think what happened is at one point before I got back on this committee is we took all of the policies and said this is the MASC's recommendation. So

these are all our new policies. Not that we threw out the others, but I think we threw out the others. So, however, you can look back into that. It's more of a Mr. Almea thing where with the finance pieces.

Yeah. I'll just I'll just repeat um a little bit of what I said um before you arrived and we recessed. But um you know, the intent here was to pull these policies together. You know, obviously just pulled them right from our policy um manual. I actually I said used AI to give a little overview in case people didn't want to read through like every single mass general law so people could

get an overview of what each policy spoke to um to kind of get a flavor for what we do have as policies with an eye on revisiting all of them kind of as a group and inviting um folks from the committee to get together as a working group members of the administration um folks from the school committee to just start going through all the policies. I agree that um there are as as you read

through them and it comes up I mean some of it's kind of this help language that's built in there like by MASC like don't forget to check your charter. We published it with where it still says that note check your charter kind of thing. So I do think all of them need to be revisited and then brought through policy subcommittee um and brought to the committee um as a whole. Some of it

might just be around a little bit of um cleanup. Others I think as people read through them um might speak to for some folks uh the need for complete revision or an additional policy or something like that. Uh but that was the invitation um at the start of the meeting and something that I hope we can you know start doing in the next month or two.

Thank you. So uh we if you go back to the minutes of the last finance of one of them maybe a year ago the most of these things were brought up that time and some of the comments have been the same like we need to do it. So that will just lead us to why didn't we get something done with some of these policies including some may be able to be combined some might be able to

they're redundant some might be things that are not accurate uh as we change uh one of which I was looking at the quarterly budget transfer authority we made motions that change this policy uh and I don't see it on here uh other than does say chief financial officer quarterly report, but we've made a change to to call it anticipated, which is a big big change. So that when the transfer authority is quarterly

anticipated, we should have a lot more transfers early on and not wait till the end. Um, I am a proponent of making sure the school committee has as much authority as they can related to the budget. So that's just one uh of the policies which was uh DBJ that I think we should look at sooner than later. The other one is DBG budget adoption procedures which I think is pertinent to

this discussion tonight. Um in it it says all revenue sources are subject to adoption by the school committee under the um cost center line item authority. I think we need to get a clear answer to what is what does everyone believe that that is because I certainly know that my belief is not what is actually happening. So we need clarity on u what does DBJ uh DBG mean related to cost centers. I'm of the

belief that call center also means line items within the call center so that when we do vote on the bottom line of the call center, we're actually seeing the line items that add up to that end number.

I don't believe that that's happening uh throughout the but the district including budgets, title one, title two, all those things. I don't see that we're we're getting a chance to actually vote on those line items.

Um, so I think that one needs to be certainly looked at. An example of of that would be last meeting Mr. Faras came up and explained to us that we had $2 million in additional title one funds.

That title one number came in several months after we already approved the actual budget.

So that there implies to me that when we were told when we did the budget, let's say June, middle of June, all those line items didn't necessarily add up because we since received $2 million in additional title one funds and that never came before the committee to vote on those line items where that 2 million was. Mr. Mr. Almea indicated that was used to pay raises, but we as a school

committee should have had a say on what all of that those line items would be within the cost center. So, that's sort of my two cents on that. The procurement is still I I still wonder uh what's been going on with procurement in the city.

I've heard too many times that things were held up in city hall without any backup or any information coming from the school administration as to that being the case. So, we still are looking for an answer on that.

But in a general question to Mr. Almea or superintendent, why does it take so long to pay the bills in the school department?

Why you wanted My question is, why does it take so long to pay bills in the school department?

I'll give you an example. If you talk to anyone in contracting, for instance, and some it might be a city issue as well.

If a job was going to cost me as a contractor $50,000 to pay prevailing wage and the like, I want to do that job, I have to tack on 35% to that cost because I'm going to have to wait six or eight months to get my money. So, if I know I'm going to have to take $50,000 out of my account to put in to pay prevailing wages for jobs and

I'm going to wait six months, I have to recoup that money at some point. So, we end up paying whether it's not a quote unquote late fee. We have to create a takes a long time to pay fee. And I I just I I can't figure that out.

I'm open to any any thoughts, any ideas.

But in that in that situation, it depends on the timing of when we're notified that that's going to happen. Um depending on the dollar amount. If it's over $25,000, we have to bring it to you to approve.

Um once we get that approval, we try to push it through as quickly as we can to get a purchase order generated so the contractor has a purchase order and as soon as we get a bill, we process it.

That's typically the process. I we what we can't control is the time the time from when a bill is when a bill actually happens or the service happens and we get we get an invoice. So it all depends on when it's coming from the department to us to process. Um, but when bills arrive in in my department, they typically take a week to a week and a half to be processed. Once they're

processed, they're put on a badge for that week. The batch goes out for for approval. I sign, the superintendent signs, four members of I'm sorry, two members of the school committee signs.

Once the batch is signed on our end, the batch is then turned over to the city.

Um once it goes to the city, depending on when during the week it goes to the city, it'll go on the warrant for Monday. Check will be issued on the Friday. So it all depends on the timing of when that invoice comes up.

Yeah. I mean, everything you explained sounds like a, you know, 30 45 day like a normal, you know, thing, but I've heard that explanation multiple times. The reality is it's still not happening for some reason. And I'm not saying it's necessarily on your end, but I think at when we have things that are taking way too long, if we don't address them, they're just going to keep happening.

So, I'd encourage you and the superintendent to get together to figure out how does this happen? As you were talking, one of the things that makes me question some of it is do we allow people to to incur all kinds of bills before we assign a contract?

No.

Are we supposed to do that?

Are we supposed to supposed to do what?

So, under the case where you just mentioned that a person's doing the job and then we have to if it's over 25,000, we got to get a an approval from the school committee. Do the people start the job before the school committee actually signs? Because I I I I could see that being uh if I'm working on a job and it's taken me 60 days to get the work done and then

we don't get it until 60 days later.

Now, the person's already out 60 days.

Like, the process is 60 days or 30 days or I I don't know that anybody should be doing any work for any amount of money without knowing that all the sign offs are on to get paid.

I agree.

Do you think that that is happening?

I can tell you it's happened in the past. Yes, it has.

Has it been corrected?

We continue to improve.

Yes.

Got it. you you know what my stance would be on that.

I understand. Yep.

The um the last one was about the um the core centers what I mentioned. So I think just heading into planning for next year I do think that we do have to when especially when the new committee comes forth to know what does that mean for u cost centers. We sit in front of MASC who comes down to give us training and they actually try to get the school committees even though they're supposed

to represent the school committees and I'm saying this in a public meeting no one full well they can watch it. They come down and recommend that school committees provide little oversight to the superintendent and the administration. That's what our union or our bargaining consultant, whatever you want to call them, comes down and advocates. So they say, "Oh, no, no, you can't do that. You can't do this." And

we say, "Well, we can as a school committee. We can set up as many parameters as we want at budget time to pass the budget." They say, "Oh, no, no.

We recommend this because you shouldn't be involved in this. You shouldn't be involved in that." So, I'm just laying it out there. Doesn't need an answer. I just know that for me, I'd rather have more approval and more authority on the budget as a member of the school committee than less. So, we've been lately going to less and less less transparency, less um documentation.

I'm of the belief that we need to do more. We'll see what the new committee says when they come in because they're going to be the ones to actually pass the budget, but I'm speaking for myself.

I think we need more uh rather than less. One of the last things was Mr. D mentioned public records requests and um I do think that's an issue we've asked for at least 6 months of uh asking the question. Michael Joyce's company still two years later after being notified still does not have a contract. We have no set control over how much they're making. We pay that firm over $200,000 a year.

We still have no contract with them.

I've asked the question, do we actually have them do everything or do we do specialty cases like Mr. Das said and then we get, well, they're the person that does the freedom of information requests. Well, in my mind, if you're paying an attorney, a specialized attorney to deal with pupil personnel issues, you might have to pay a good dollar for you to get the quality that you need to. If that same person is

paying the we're paying the same amount for public relations uh public records requests, something's drastically wrong with this picture. And I've personally sent emails that said the following.

Michael Joyce builds us every time there's an email, we get one quarter of an hour at $250 an hour for every email he sends.

I I defy anybody to tell me that that makes any sense whatsoever.

That's $60 to send one email on a case with no controls and no contract. We definitely have a problem there. So, I would encourage the superintendent to look into uh changing it. Um when we are we going to go into the second? You didn't go to the second one about the timeline, right? That's after.

Good. I yield. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. So, Yeah. So, my question is on uh DBD and maybe just a recommendation about DBD.

Um, as we all know, we have three newly elected uh school committee members coming in. Uh, what I'd like to see is some some training uh understand the budget, know the budget, how to read the budget uh before the actual budget time uh comes. Um, it's something that never really was offered to me and a couple of my uh colleagues. We had to go out and and ask for the assistance. What I'd

like to see is um an official uh you know, it says right here in the in the the sentence, advanced planning. I think this should uh also be part of the advanced planning is getting uh these newly elected officials ready for the uh 26 27 budget process. Um I yield.

Mr. Das, thank you. I just want to very quickly piggyback on my colleagues um comments.

I for one as well support amending our policies for full transparency. And just two ideas to do so. One, I believe the threshold should be lowered. I believe it was raised to I believe, don't correct me if I'm wrong, 35,000 for a 25,000 for a contract to come before the school committee. What was it prior to that to it being raised?

10.

I think we should go back down to 10.

And um I also believe we should go back to wet signatures with the pen. And I really my my personal opinion is I don't think you'll run into the issues I think you're expecting you will run into. my opinion. Um, but I think there can be ways that we could um work it out so you don't run into the issues. That's my opinion. Um, one last Oh, on the MASC, I

also believe and I've been very adamant about this that they do not support the interest of the school committee and I think we should leave the MASC at some point. Um, one last question I wanted to um follow up on. Um, so could you just remind me again how the um indirect cost works in terms of legal fees? I thought it was a certain amount the city pays or if it's under a certain amount.

So it's it's up to it's up to $40,000 of work uh for the attorney and anything over we pay for and then anytime they consult with outside legal we pay for that.

Okay. Um, last question. In terms of um I in terms of financial policies, um, if there is an independent investigation that's um, ordered and we start getting the bills in, shouldn't that come from a vote of the school committee if it involves um, parties within our purview?

You tell me. I should I think that's the prudent thing. So I just saw um certain batches come in and I guess there's um some sort of investigation that I my opinion should have came before the school committee for a vote. I think the school committee was bypassed by the city by corporation council and that's just not okay and that's something that should be included within the policy.

Is that budget?

I don't think that's budget Mr.

finance finance policies and processes.

There's nothing about budget in here.

However, I think that in terms of financial standpoint, if it's something within the purview of the school committee, the school committee should be ordering the use of those funds.

That's my financial standpoint. Thank you.

Okay, Mr. Hager, just on that question, so the um the policy of that 20,000 is that per case or is that per year?

Per year.

per year.

per year. So the first $20,000 of services they'll give us free and then we have to pay otherwise.

The um question that Mr. Das asked. So I don't I didn't see that batch but how much is budgeted for outside legal and if you don't know if you could get it to us. So I will get it has to be a budgeted line item for outside legal. Mhm. So technically speaking, if that if that was within let's say the budget's 50,000 and we had 50,000 in there, I would say, okay, my

gut tells me that we're we don't have that much money in a specific line item for outside legal. But if we make the expense, we just got to transfer it somehow without the authority of the school committee. That's I think where Mr. Das is going with it is that we have to look at, you know, how many of those things can we do? So, if the superintendent is authorizing outside investigations, which as one member I'm

totally fine with, once it gets to the point of it's going to go over whatever the amount of money is, just come back to us and say we need to replenish that account. That to me is good checks and balances on it's not an issue of whether she has the right to do it. I I do think that it's something that uh you know, we ultimately have to look at. Um, when I

look at policy as well, we have a budget and we I think somebody else just mentioned it that we have three new committee members coming on board. And I think that out of respect to those individuals, we have to be careful with what we what we vote on over the next two months or six weeks so that we're not binding them to decisions that we made for the next year, two years, three

years, or whatever. For instance, if we have contracts that are up, I don't believe anybody should be getting any increases until the next committee comes in so that they have a chance to weigh in on what they feel along with the new committee feels, not just try to put a whole bunch of salaries and requests on now when we know there's three new members coming in and they might have

different opinions than what the current people have. So my vote would be for no additional contracts up until January when we get the new committee sworn in.

With that I yield.

Okay. 3.2 budget priorities.

That's our next discussion item.

Superintendent.

Yes. So I provided um I provided the committee with just you know a reminder some background information around the timeline that's been used in the past.

um what our budget calendar looked like, our last year's priorities, and then also a um you know, what the data looked like coming out of um a community survey that we did last year with staff and um members of the community, you know, sending things home to parents and then also offered a survey draft because I'd like some feedback um in terms of kind of the budget process overall and

then specifically um talk about some ideas to get some stakeholder feedback um you know potentially you know maybe using a survey but then some other means because I you know I've said to a couple of people on the committee and certainly people on my team know this I do think that year after year um we use the surveys we get the same kind of information over and over from folks whether it was through the S SOA

prioritization or then just local budget prioritization um outside of um the S SOA surveys and just looking for maybe a different way to get some feedback from people. Um and then also I know that since you know at least since I've been um working in central office we've seen budget priorities that really look the same from year to year and we have we end up you know setting the same kinds of

priorities around instruction and support for students and um professional development and hiring and recruitment and things like that. And I know that during the process last year, we got some feedback about different kinds of priorities, um maybe kind of philosophical priorities around things like, you know, we're going to prioritize uh you know, maintaining level service or we're going to prioritize

um you know, sound fiscal management, whatever it is. And so I just want to get some feedback from people before we enter into um this process in terms of any ideas that people have to improve it.

Mr. Corey.

So Madame Superintendent, as far as the uh the uh stakeholder feedback is, um who you looking for? I mean, are we looking for like school teachers as well as administrators as well as people who maybe uh run some programs or is is that what you're looking at?

as far the stakeholders are concerned.

Yes. And so we generally do get feedback from folks who work in our schools and then we send one home to families.

That's generally, you know, principles get a version of the um same survey that goes out to families that goes out to other staff members. So you're looking for a cross-section of uh you know comments coming from outside the realm of the ad building and uh to try to figure out you know where the priorities may lie. Is that what you're thinking of?

And also just some thinking around um you know maybe a different lens when we when we think about what we're prioritizing.

Again, just different themes that lie outside of asking people, do you prioritize, you know, before and after school care or do you want us to prioritize um school safety? I I mean, I think generally speaking, we do the kinds of surveys that say, "Pick your top four out of this list. Is there anything else you'd like to recommend?"

And then we look for themes. But the truth is, year after year, the themes are the same. And maybe that's okay. And maybe that makes sense because we have to keep, you know, moving forward um with the kind of work that we're doing or not. Maybe maybe people in the community would say, "No, I think you have to change your focus. It really needs to be this other thing that doesn't quite make our list every year."

Yes. Thank you. I yield.

Mr. Das, thank you. Um Superintendent, in terms of um we did a survey last year, correct? after last budget and um what was the response like to that? I don't know if you mean the number of people who responded. It's generally it's generally fairly low. I would say maybe you know I honestly can't remember but I feel like generally speaking if we can get 10% of people to participate that's a a good thing. Um,

but I I don't remember offhand. It might actually say in the backup that I gave you. Um, we had we heard from 599 families. I was going to say 700, but we heard from about 600 families and 213 staff members.

Okay. I guess um I figured it would be low. So, my feedback would be I don't believe we utilize um all our technological resources. I think we should partner up with um either news organizations or um different partners to spread the message. And just for an example, I thought a good um survey that went out by the city was um believe it was um the CDA director. He I remember

he was for years pushing the survey and he used different platforms and I could have sworn that got a good response. So I think that's one way we can start.

Second way is for example I think we can do a better job at advertising the public hearing. Um last year there was absolutely no one there and not many individuals knew this was even going to take place. So again using media, social media to um advertise that as well or even if we have to um send something home to the to the parents like to the kids some put something to give to their

parents I think would be one good way to increase I guess the only thing I'll say for actual budget priorities I think it's just important that the administration just take a review of all the programs that we have see which ones are effective see which ones aren't effective. ive and go from there on which ones to fund. That's all I have for now. Thank you, Mr. Aia. So, the question I have for

superintendent is the current budget cycle which we're going to be going into, are we implementing zerobased budgeting during this cycle?

No, I don't I cannot promise a a zerobased budgeting at this point.

Okay. And is there a reason why?

Um I So for me personally, I think that what we've called zerobased budgeting in the district um in the past isn't quite that. Um, and so I guess I would say like I'm not saying we won't do it, but right now we have not like put forward the planning that is likely necessary to do that in terms of getting everybody um of that mindset to literally build from nothing up in terms of student needs. We ask

every single school, you know, we sit with every single school leader and every departmental leader and we review um their populations. We review the need. We review what the staffing and resources looks like in those buildings.

We have very good discussions with every single school. Last year, admittedly, most of the a lot of the discussion at least was around there wouldn't be more, right? that we would look for people to repurpose the resources um in their buildings and make some decisions around, you know, if they really thought they needed one thing, is there something else they would give up? Um I think that has been the spirit um of

things in the past even when it was identified as zerobased budgeting.

Yeah. So I can just give you my weigh in on that. So for many years now, we've had we're struggling. We're struggling academically. We're struggling with a lot of different things. We keep doing things the same way, which is what you just described, and I'm agreeing with you that in the past they said it was zerobased budgeting. We weren't really doing with fidelity zerobased budgeting.

U but that doesn't mean we shouldn't.

And I think it's time now where we have a lot of resources. We've had a lot of revenue come in that we need to go to zerobased budgeting. a true zerobased budget. At that point, everyone starts at zero and we're going to determine what's needed in every single department as well as each school instead of just having it be sort of carried over. I know I said last year there was winners

and losers at the budget and it wasn't taken too kindly I guess by some. But at the end of the day, I want to avoid that again. We shouldn't just have to kick it down and say, "Well, you already had all this, so tell us what's working, what's not." We can tweak around the edges. The time for us in for public schools to keep tweaking around the edges should be

over. We now have $15 million more per year for the last 6 years. We have the money. We just need to do something different. So when it comes time to a vote, I'm going to vote for a zerobased budget with fidelity. Personally, um, as the survey goes, I read the draft survey. I think it's a little uh too long and too cumbersome for we want to get some feedback but I feel that uh

you know parents I think want what's best for their kids. They want their students to have high academic achievement. They want them to be safe.

They don't necessarily know the intricacies of what does special ed law mean? What does special ed funding mean?

What does it staffing mean? So to try to say, well, what parents maybe didn't say or community members didn't say, well, special education um programming needs to be the focus. They might not know that that's really what they would say if we explained it to them. So when I read it, I was sort of saying, what would I personally say? And if I was a parent, I might not say if I wasn't as

intimately involved in all this, I wouldn't necessarily say some other things. So I would just caution any surveys to be more concise to the point but also that the committee and yourself and your team need to work together to know what is truly needed. So it might not be the popular thing and we just have to make sure that we allow that uh to be said that we at some point might

not just take the you know like for instance you mentioned after school programs everybody wants after school programs but we got a hell of a lot more issues than just after school programs.

So, I just think if you're going to do a survey, I would try to narrow it uh so we get something out of it that we could use.

Sure.

Thank you. So, I I do think that there's something to be said in um you know, for us in terms of our understanding, some of it I do consider to be perception data. So that if if folks said we really need more of this thing where internally uh we know we've got so much of that it does signal to us that we have to do a much better job of communicating that to

families um and and being much more um you know transparent just sharing more information um throughout the community.

So, I think some of what we gain from the questions is that. But, um, but I I don't I I did I agree with you that um we can certainly shorten the survey. I gave um you a sample of what it could be and if this if the spirit of this kind of survey um is what folks in general think is going to get us some of the information that we need from families,

we can move forward with this. And um I would agree that we could do a shortened version of this. Um, I just want to go back to the zerobased budgeting. I I do want to say that the um I don't you mentioned that you know you would vote for zerobased budgeting with fidelity.

Um I would say that if that is going to be something that is comes out of this committee as a vote. We would want to know that um sooner rather than later uh because I do think it it it's a lift. it would be a lift um for this school community and and one that we'd want to um pay attention to most immediately. Um but yeah, that's yeah, my only suggestion on that uh is

the timing is not so great for uh we have three new members and we have a current group. Uh what I would recommend that you do, Madam Superintendent, when I'm sure you're going to meet with all the the new folks as well. They're not bound by the open meeting. They can't come up and vote on these things, but I would raise that question with everybody, including us. I gave you my

opinion in public meeting. Sure. So I think if everybody gives you that impression and it says, "Oh, this is what we'd like to have." You'll have a unofficial vote, I guess, is what I'm saying. If we wait for an official vote by January, you might be a little late for No, I understand that.

I think that would be a good idea just to reach out to them and ask them what they think.

Okay.

Thank you. I yield.

Mr. Das, thank you. Just very, very quick followup. I was actually going to take a vote. Um, I was actually going to introduce a vote until my colleague just said that. So maybe that's the better course of action. I also support implementing a zerobased budgeting for this cycle. Um, I was again, like I said, I was going to make the motion, but I think that what my colleague just

said was the best way to go. Um, this and I also agree on the survey as well.

I think we'll get a lot more of an impact by having a short survey that can grab more attention from parents than having a long survey where many questions may not be answered. So, okay, I yield with that. Thank you.

Any further hearing? None. Uh, any new business come before the committee? Mr. Das, um, I believe this committee took a vote earlier last year to have quarterly finance meetings where we um, report out on what we've done to make um, our finances more efficient.

And I think that's so my question is one why haven't we done that since we took a majority vote and two just want to again reinforce the idea of how I believe it's important and transparent just to report out on ways we've um made our finances more efficient not just for the committee but for the general public as well whoever has the answer to that.

I missed the second part but um so for the first part I would say that we I I don't I do remember a discussion about this and I take your word for it that there was a vote um I thought there was also a vote um to put together a calendar for quarterly um meetings for all of the subcommittees um which I did bring to the committee and the committee didn't move forward with that um with

the proposed calendar for the call which I think had um a quarterly finance meeting on it. So we we can move forward with um with scheduling those and um and we will I just thought those were two separate issues but I think that they were but I think that when we brought forth the potential dates for this fall um we did agree we I had suggested at that time that with a

new committee members coming on in January, it only made sense to bring forth a calendar you know through December and um I believe that when that conversation, I don't want to say fell apart, but when we didn't move forward with what was recommended or suggested or put together, um I think that's where it fell by the wayside. And I'm sorry, but I did miss the second question.

Uh there wasn't a second question. I'll just reinforce my my um why I support the um the updates.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Oh, Mr. A, I'm sorry. On that note, in light of the fact that we're not going to have the meeting, could we ask the superintendent, Miss Delmea, to put together any efficiencies that have happened over the last quarter and just send them to him under separate cover?

Thank you.

Uh, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn.

Second.

Second.

Uh, Deb, could you please call the role?

Mr.

Yes.

Mr. Bailey. Mr. Das. Yes.

Mr. Corey, yes.

Miss Laravey, yes.

Miss Pereira, Mayor Coogan, yes.

adjourned finance meeting. We'll come back to the regular meeting in four minutes. Thank you.